Using High Voltage Electrochemical Oxidation (HVEO) to obtain protective coatings, surface finishing on electronic materials

Electronics and microelectronic components such as printed circuit board, capacitors, CPU heat sinks, hard drive, etc. commonly encounter harsh environmental conditions during their operational lifetime. To protect the electronics materials from conditions like corrosion, wear, humidity and contaminants, aluminium protective coating materials can be used. However, the behavior of materials in harsh environments and their effect on the reliability of electronics in industrial products has been studied only very little. Moreover, the changes in the parameters (current density, temperature and time) of commonly used aluminium under various conditions remain largely unknown. In this paper, High Voltage Electrochemical Oxidation (HVEO) was used to produce a high microhardness of 440HV and high surface thickness of up to 44µm oxide coatings on aluminum alloy AMg2 (analogues of 5052-H32 alloy) for electronic components protection. The process was carried out in electrolyte of tartaric acid and sulfuric acid as an electrolyte under constant duration for each sample and various anodizing temperatures and current densities. The samples used in the study were aluminum used for commercial electronics devices designed for use in harsh conditions.